“A strong State Insurance Fund (SIF) safeguards ECbeneficiaries from work-related contingencies,” said Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis.
In a report released by ECC, the State Insurance Fund (SIF) is postedat P53.79B.The SIF is sourced from the contributions paid by government and private employers to fund the EC benefits for sickness, disability, medical, rehabilitation services and death benefits.
“Compared to the previous 7-percent increase or P3.34B from December 2014 to December 2015, asignificant 6-percent increase or P3.28B in a span of 6 months from December 2015 to June 2016 is recorded from the actuarial reports provided by the Employees’ Compensation Program’s administering agencies, the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS),” noted Executive DirectorBanawis.
“The actuarial study done early this year also shows that the EC beneficiaries of private establishments are assured of their benefits until year 2078 while those in the government service are guaranteed until year 2062,” she explains.
Employees of privatecompanies are assured of 62 years of protection from work related contingencies, on the other hand, public sector employees’ fund support can last up to 46 years.
Executive Director Banawis added that actuarialstudies are needed to ascertain SIF’s fund life and to determine the viability of the EC fund at the GSIS and the SSS to fund payments for claims and proposed increases in EC benefits.
From January-June 2016, the SSS granted P559,793,029 for the payment of 126,450 EC benefits claims in the private sector. The bulk of payments are for death pension benefit claims which summed up to P435.529 million.
Other benefit payments included disability benefits which reached P59.967 million, P52.392 million for sickness benefits, P6.786 million for medical services, P3.360 million for funeral benefits and P757, 250 for rehabilitation services.
On the other hand, GSIS granted a total of P98.629M EC benefits for 19,812 claims from the public sector. Benefit payments included sickness benefits which amounted to P3.301 million, P5.660 million for disability benefits, P77.706 million for death pension, P10.484 million for medical services, P1.439 million for funeral benefits and P38,009 for rehabilitation services.
Death and pension benefits comprised the highest share in the EC benefit payments made both by the SSS and GSIS from January to June 2016.
From 1975 to 2015, the ECP granted P36,124.207 billion worth of benefits.(PR)